How I Planned the Menu
Got super excited when my neighbor asked me to help with his kid’s Indian-themed birthday party. Started by scribbling down street food names I remembered from my Delhi trip last year on a greasy pizza napkin. Googled “popular Mumbai street snacks” but got flooded with fancy recipes. Just wanted that real chaat cart vibe, ya know?
Cooking Chaos in My Tiny Kitchen
First disaster happened with pani puri. Thought I could use regular flour for puris – ended up with rock-hard shells that cracked when stuffed. Trashed the whole batch and ran to Indian grocery store for readymade puri shells. For aloo tikki, boiled potatoes went flying everywhere when I tried mashing them hot. Burnt three tikkis before realizing my stove runs hotter than hell.
- Chole bhature: Chickpeas refused to soften until I added baking soda (grandma’s trick)
- Dahi puri: Yogurt turned watery so hung it in cheesecloth overnight
- Jalebi: First attempt looked like orange worms – second batch used thicker batter
The Final Spread & Reactions
Set up folding tables with newspaper print tablecloths. Labeled each dish with sticky notes written in Hindi using Google Translate – hope I didn’t accidentally call samosas “poison”. Kids went crazy for the bright orange jalebis while adults hovered around the papdi chaat station. Best moment? Seeing Mr. Sharma (actual Indian neighbor) take four servings of pav bhaji saying “tastes like Juhu Beach”. Burnt finger totally worth it when birthday kid shouted “best party ever!” with pani puri juice dripping down his chin.